The Elegant Lacy Vest is knitted from the bottom up, in the round, with waist shaping and a beautiful lace work pattern on the top half. I love how this turned out and will definitely be making another one for myself!

I think it’s the perfect summer top as it can be worn during the day but also at night for those impromptu drinks in the beer garden!

Although I’m happy with this now, I was not so happy a few weeks ago when my morning sickness came back to bite me in the bum! Let me explain.

When I first submitted the lacy vest to Let’s Knit! I was not pregnant. I designed the top not knowing how things would change over the coming months. My submission looked like this:

I was confident in this one and, after some yarn changes, the editor of Let’s Knit! and I chose Sublime Yarns Cotton Silk DK, which is beautiful to work with. I received the yarn and started knitting. About two days later I found out I was pregnant. I hadn’t begun to grade the pattern, just work bits out for the sample, but I didn’t really think anything of it. The k1, p1 (1×1) ribbing had to be changed to k2, p2, (2×2) ribbing to accommodate the shaping I had in mind. The neck line needed to be altered to what I had originally intended too. Nothing major. All fixable.

The pattern was knitted up and I graded it with relative ease for the other seven sizes. Then I got the pattern into testing. I was so confident in my work that I only had three testers on this one and didn’t bother searching for more. I figured it would be a case of a couple of typos and maybe some maths errors here and there. Easy fixes. How wrong was I?!

My morning sickness kicked in during the first week of testing. It was horrendous! I spent most days in bed and barely looked at my laptop. The testers were pretty much on their own. I have since apologised, but I still feel terrible! Although the changes caused a few problems at first, the test went well and I was happy when it was over and I could put this one to bed…for now.

Fast forward 3 – 4 months and I get an email from the deputy editor of Let’s Knit! Her tech editor has hit some problems with the pattern and we needed to work through them. At this stage of my pregnancy I was in full blown baby brain mode. I couldn’t concentrate on anything for long periods of time and things that seemed to make perfect sense was utter gobbledygook to anyone else.

I looked at the pattern and fixed the initial issue quite quickly, but then the tech editor came back and told me there were more errors further up. When I looked again, the pattern was a complete mess. It made hardly any sense where I had got the maths from. It was a jumble of nonsense. The only reasons the testers had managed to knit this with relative ease was because they were all knitting sizes that were not affected by my baby brain. They had got lucky!

I set to work, explained myself to the, quite frankly, wonderful tech editor, and re-wrote the pattern, pretty much from scratch. I nearly cried a few times. It was meant to be so simple. Any other time in my life and it would have been so simple. But not with a belly full of baby! Together, the tech editor and I got through it and came through the other side, creating the beautiful piece above us. I am now even more thrilled with how it turned out since I really worked for it. This was almost a nemesis! But instead, with the help of others, I have something to be proud of.

Since then I have decided that garments will be put to one side for now, until my baby brain has passed, my baby is a little older and I can sit and concentrate for longer periods of time than two minutes. So you will be seeing a lot of accessories from me for a while, and baby clothes!

There is one more garment to come and then we will have a quiet from them, for some time, but not forever. I admit defeat. The baby brain beat me, and the morning sickness too!

The Elegant Lacy Vest is available through Let’s Knit! Magazine right now, for 1 month only. So grab it fast. I promise it is now good to go! You can see more info about it here on Ravelry.

Have you ever been so affected by baby brain? I would love to hear that I’m not alone in this!

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